I have moved around a lot in my life. Born near Vancouver, BC- my family moved to Pennsylvania when I finished Grade 3. We stayed there for about 4 years, and moved back to the west side of the continent again- near Seattle just as I was starting the 7th grade. This is where I have lived the longest, and where most of my "childhood" memories are.

I stuck around there until I left for Bible School in New Zealand when I was 19. That's where I met Nich, and also where things got a lot more complicated.

After one year abroad, I moved back in with my parents...for about 3 weeks. Then moved to Bellingham, so I could be closer to Nich (who lived just north of the border in Surrey). After one year there, I moved to Lynden (even closer to the border, yay!!). And after a few months there, I immigrated back to Canada and moved in with my parents (so my Canadian-ness would be all settled and such by the time of the wedding), who had by then moved to Nanaimo.

Have I lost you yet? I know, it's getting so complicated, it's boring.

After one month in Nanaimo, Nich and I tied the knot in Victoria, and moved to White Rock, BC (right on the beach, beeeautiful).

Living there only a few short months, we purchased our first home, a condo in Langley City. And now I am sure I have completely bored you, but the story pretty much stops there. We've bought and sold a couple times since then (In just 3 years. I know! Stay in one spot! How hard is it?)

All that being said, I do have a point. I am used to to being the one who's moving. Not the one who is being moved away from.

Our good friends, the Dykstra's, have moved to Summerland. And I am so happy for them, because it does sound like such a wonderful town, and they have some great oppurtunities there, and family and friends (and lots of cool blogging ladies too).

But, seriously, I am bummed. After we packed up there stuff this morning, and went to a wonderful birthday party (Happy 1 year, Elliott!), I came home, changed in my sweatpants and cried "woe is me" the rest of the day.

I will really miss my friend. And Eva is already asking where Caleb is (how does she know?).

I am so bummed. I really need some chocolate. And a latte. And a hug.

I edited these to have a 1960's photo look...

I have a confession to make. It's a secret confession, you can't tell anyone- especially Nich.

We're finally getting a bit more sleep in this house. She only wakes up a couple times now, compared to the un-countable amount of times just one week ago. Yep, I'm started to feel a bit more rested. Ahh, so nice.


My friend, Deanna, blogged about this cool site called Picnik that you can edit your photos on for free. It's so fun! I've only had the time to goof around on it for a couple minutes, but I'll be using it a lot more in the future.

Cry It Out- Day 3

8:00 To bed (Cries for 10 minutes)
2:10 Awake (Fusses for 15 minutes- not full-blown crying tonight)
4:25 Awake to eat
6:20 Awake (I feed her because I don't want her to wake Eva up. Doesn't work- Eva wakes up anyway)
7:30 Awake for the day

It's getting better!

The reason she cried when I put her to sleep (she never has before), is because I decided we better not use the pacifier. She can't have it when she wakes up in the middle of the night, so probably shouldn't put her to sleep with it either.

Anyhow, I'm feeling pretty good about the progress. I hope tonight is the magical sleep-through night.

Cry It Out- Day 2

8:00 To bed
9:30 Cries for 10 minutes (goes to sleep when Nich went in to rub her back)
11:37 Awake, and cries for a record hour (I almost barfed, I hate hearing her cry)
12:35 Finally to sleep
3:35 Awake to eat
7:00 Awake for the day

The last half of the night went beautifully. And I can't believe she went a record 7 1/2 hours without eating! I'm so proud of her. I think this might just work.

The girls and I are having a "pajama day". After our first night of Ferberizing, I don't really have the energy for anything spectacular. So, we're just lounging around, cuddling, giggling and playing. It's pretty fun, actually. Just what we all need.

The first night of cry-it-out went ok. Not great, but not bad either. Definitely needed the double shot Americano Misto I got from Starbucks this morning.

(side note: I do not enjoy this sort of sleep training at all, but I have tried everything else. The Baby Whisperer's tips worked for 2 nights, and then she went back to waking every 1/2 hour again. Every 1/2 hour, people. Are you picturing this? I put my baby to bed, brush my teeth, take my contacts out, read my bible, pray, hit the pillow, start to drift off and "Waaaaaaaaaahh". I settle her, come back to bed, start to drift off and "Waaaaaaaaahh". Do you know how much sleep I have gotten in the past 3 1/2 weeks? Not much. This is my last ditch effort for some Zzzz's for all of us)

Just for kicks, I'm going to record progress here (there better be progress...)

Cry-it-Out Day 1 (kinda weird, cuz we were at a party 'til 9:30)

8:00 To bed at friend's house (woke a couple times, cuz it was a strange place to her- I settled her right away because she was scared and not in her own bed)

9:30 To bed in her own crib (she went right to sleep- no tears)

10:45 The crying begins, we go in and give her some love at 5, 10 and 15 minute intervals

11:32 Finally goes to sleep

2:30 A record! She wakes up, and I feed her (Dr. H says I can feed her once in the middle of the night)

4:00 Awake (I go in after 5 min, snuggle her bunny up to her and roll her on her side. She goes back to sleep)

4:24 Awake

4:37 Back to sleep

6:00 Awake (I feed her cuz she is soo hungry- she goes to sleep after eating for 10 minutes)

7:23 Awake for the day

Not bad for the first night, I'd say. I was worried that she'd cry all night long, cuz she's been waking every 1/2 hour, but that wasn't the case.

And now, I'll attempt to change the topic. I'm fully aware that I'll I've been saying the last few weeks, is "sleep sleep, I need sleep".

We went camping! Just a short 24-hour trip to the family lot. But, it was fun!

-Kaitlyn woke up every 1/2 hour again last night. I finally gave up and brought her to bed with me at 1:30. Forget sleep training. We'll try again after we are caught up on the Zzz's (and after a Tuesday visit with our Doctor).

- Nich taught Eva the phrase "Party Like a Rock Star", and she randomly spouts it off throughout the day. Makes me giggle.

- I joined a fitness club, and am lovin' it! I'm pretty sure these workout outings are what is keeping me sane and somewhat energized despite the lack of sleep.

- We might go camping this weekend.

- Eva held up a pretend camera, pointed it at Kaitlyn and said:

"Kaitlyn, say Goo!"

- I am out of Starbucks Vanilla Syrup. My morning lattes are just not the same.

- Nich is watching the Olympics every chance he gets (that Phelps guy rocks!).

- Eva was playing with Kaitlyn this morning- I peeked over, and saw that Eva had cleverly placed a toy on her sister's face:



And the funny thing is, Kaitlyn didn't mind a bit.

Kaitlyn is finally sleeping a bit better. Thanks to the Baby Whisperer's techniques, she's only waking up a handful of times now. At the beginning of last week, I was trying out the advice from the book "The No-Cry Sleep Solution". Each night got progressively worse, until she was waking up every 1/2 hour. Ouch. (Side note: I met a mom yesterday who also tried the No-Cry Sleep Solution, and it made the night-wakings worse for her too. If you were thinking of reading this book, I wouldn't bother).

In the past couple days, Eva is becoming quite the wonderful 2-year old to be around. Not only is she being agreeable, but also completely hilarious. A couple highlights:

-I was kinda bummed (Kaitlyn is still not sleeping), and went and sat on the back patio to watch the rain come down and get some fresh air. Eva came out, and saw me so sad, and figured I must be sad since it's raining. She said "It's ok Mommy, don't worry. I'll clean it up." She then went to the kitchen, grabbed a tea towel, and came back, went down the patio stairs and started wiping up the puddles.

-She started saying "Ok". Well, she's always been able to say it, but now she's saying it in place of her usual "No". At dinner (she never eats), Nich and I had finished eating, and Eva was yet to place one bite in her mouth. As I cleaned up the dishes, I told her "You can eat your dinner, if you want". To which she replied "Ok Mom, Okie Dokie". And then proceeded to stuff her face. I was dumbfounded.

It's quite nice having her back to her normal self. I have a crazy theory as to why the tantrums and potty regression. In the last couple days her vocabulary has exploded, and she is able to make long sentences and is constantly surprising me with new words. I think she must have been having some crazy brain growth spurt that caused all the craziness. Not sure, but it just might be.


In Kaitlyn news, I started her on rice cereal. She's pretty excited about it.


She's also still waking up every 1-2 hours all night long (have mercy!!). But, Nich is helping me out now so I don't go completely insane. I'm not quite sure what's causing this. She's been able to put herself to sleep for a couple weeks now, at naptime and bedtime. And the theory goes, if they can put themselves to sleep, they can self-soothe and put themselves back to sleep when they wake at night. Well, it's not working out like that for us. So, I'm not sure if something else is bothering her, of if she just wants food or snuggles. We're trying Baby Whisperer's PickUp/PutDown method for the next 6 nights, and if we see no improvement, then we'll re-evaluate again.

Anyways, we're enjoying our long weekend (Nich took Friday off). We're just lazing around the house, getting projects done and watching some Olympics. But, it's nice. We really aren't capable of doing much else in our sleep-deprived state.

I am trying to teach Kaitlyn to sleep in her crib all night.

9:30 Put Kaitlyn to Bed
10:30 Wakes up
11:00 Wakes up
12:15 Wakes up
3:00 Wakes up
4:15 Wakes up
5:30 Wakes up
6:15 Wakes up
6:30 Awake for the day

It's not going well.

I.am.so.sleep.deprived. I can barely put together a coherent sentence. But, we did have a fun weekend, complete with a visit to Bear Creek Park.

Eva was thrilled to be aboard the train that ran through the park...

At the end of the ride, the conductor even let her blow the whistle! She was ecstatic.

Kaitlyn had no idea we were on a train, but enjoyed the tummy tickles...

Eva about to plant a kiss on her little friend, Aida.

Kaitlyn is such a sweetheart, I melt every time I look at her. She always saves her best smiles, snuggles and giggles for me. When she cries, I'm the only one that can calm her. When she's hungry, I'm the only one that can feed her (we're working on the bottle thing, but so far I pretty much have to leave the zip code for it to work- if she knows I'm near, she outright refuses).

All this is wonderful, especially since she's my last baby. And I really am soaking up every snuggle. But, the sleep! I need the sleep! It is progressively getting worse and worse. I hesitate to complain, because it really only takes me seconds to get her back to sleep again. The hard part is though, last night she woke up every 15 minutes for an hour and a half before I finally gave in and brought her to bed. And every time she awoke for that hour and a half, she would just scream louder if Nich went in to calm her- but as soon as he would hand her to me, she would fall silent and go off to sleepy-land.

In one of the sleep advice books I read, it suggested being strict with their naptimes and bedtimes, and soon enough the rest of the night will follow suit. And so I have been- and she's been a little falling asleep champion. I cuddle with her until she's drowsy- but still awake. Tuck her in her little crib. Tell her I love her, while her big eyes are looking up at me. Do a little snuzzle-wuzzle action, and then I leave. And she goes to sleep by herself almost every time. Without a peep. Now, if she would only stay asleep at night...

In other Kaitlyn news- she is working on her sitting skills. She sat on the couch without falling over for almost 5 minutes yesterday! Some pictures...

Showing off her toys